After a few months of lull, the Archaeological Survey of India recently resumed excavation work at Suabarai village in Puri district’s Poparanga gram panchayat to unearth more proofs regarding existence of the Chalcolithic civilisation there. The exploration work was formally inaugurated by ASI Regional Director (Eastern Zone) Jeevan Kumar Patnaik and is going on under supervision of ASI Deputy Director Jeevan Kumar Patnaik. A technical team comprising archaeologists Sanjay Panda and Er Suvendu Kumar Khuntia has been on the job at the site.
On June 6, 2014, an ASI team had stumbled upon skeletal remains of birds and wild animals, teeth, horns and earthen hearth during excavation at the site, which indicated possible existence of an over 3000-year human civilization of Chalcolithic or Copper Age.
The exploration team had found an ancient mound around 2 km away from the village located to the south of the Dhauli hill on the bank of Daya river, known as the historical Kalinga war site. The initial findings of earthen pots, fragments of pots made of red soil and household instrument mad of stones excited the excavators. They continued digging work and found deer antler, two animal teeth each measuring 2-inch and skeletal remains of birds and animals.
The Kalinga war fought around 262 BC had killed over 1 lakh belonging to either side. The war is an indication that a human civilization existed around the Daya river, said an historian. Earlier, two 4-feet-tall ancient idols were recovered from near the exploration site under a neem tree on April 14, 2013. The villagers have been worshipping the idols at Suabarai village since then.
Notably, a team from the Utkal University’s Anthropology department had unearthed two human skeletons at Banga village under Puri district’s Delanga block in 2013. Recently, an UK agency confirmed that the Banga findings are 3,500 to 4,000 years old. Meanwhile, makeshift camps have been erected near the site at Suabarai to house the excavation team staff. This would continue till the onset of rainy season, ASI sources said.